Date: Wed, 29 Nov 95 07:52 CST
From: Scott Marshall <Scott-AT-rednet.org>
Subject: Re: One use of Gramsci



>Auf der Liste wird ja auch ueber die Rolle der Intellektuellen und 
>ihrer Beziehung zur Arbeiterklasse diskutiert. Ich glaube, Gramsci 
>ueberwindet Lenins Vorstellung, die er ja von Kautsky hat, dass das 
>wissenschaftliche und sozialistische Bewusstsein der Arbeiterklasse 
>"von aussen" zugetragen werden muss. Fuer Gramsci sind die 

I think this is an often misinterpreted idea of Lenin. When Lenin talked
about from the 'outside' he clearly was not referring to a particular role
for a particular social strata or group in the party or of the party in
general. He was speaking in much broader philosophical terms. He, like Marx,
believed that class consciousness and socialist consciousness did not arise
spontaneously from the working class *on its own.* 

What I think is most important about this discussion for today is that the
working class in most industrial countries now enjoys a much higher cultural
and educational level than they did in Lenin's Russia. Hence we have many
more working class intellectuals who combine the best of both worlds in
terms of making a theoretical contribution. It is also true that the
relative higher cultural level of the working class makes the 'outside'
ideas of socialism much more accessable and available to the working class.

Lenin was always mindful of the problem of promoting workers in the party
and minimizing the undue influence of intellectuals. At some point in his
early writing he says that the ideal collective of the party should have a
ratio of one intellectual for every five workers. Later, after 1905, he
revised his estimate saying he had underestimated the undue influence of
intellectuals and called for a ratio of ten workers for every one intellectual.



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